BOSTON — While it flew under the radar during the Bruins run to the 2011 Stanley Cup championship, the organization relieved Rob Murray of his duties as head coach of the Providence (AHL) farm club in the spring.

General manager Peter Chiarelli said today that he expects to make a hire for that position later this week and that assistant coach Bruce Cassidy is a candidate for the position.

“He is a candidate and I would expect probably mid-week to have that staff in place. There are other candidates we’ve interviewed and we’ve been, it’s been kind of ongoing … so we’re actually pretty close to getting something done and I would anticipate it getting done no later than mid-week.”

This is a huge hire in my estimation. Spooner, Knight, Caron, Sauve and a band of D prospects that will need good teaching if they are to make an impact. This Stanley Cup group has a couple more years together and then we’ll need to start plugging the kids… They need a teacher and a good one.